The attack in the town of Radda was likely a retaliatory move by al Qaeda militants after Yemeni forces shelled insurgents in the southern province of al-Bayda earlier in the day, one of the officials said.

Earlier, 4 people were killed, including one soldier in an attack launched by the Yemeni army on alleged Al-Qaeda militants in the province of Baydaa’, center of the country, according to tribal and medical sources.

The attack happened soon after the French intervention on 11 January, as the forces tried to dislodge insurgents who had recently taken the town.

Three of those killed were under the age of 11.

1357 GMT:Palestine. Khaled Meshaal, the political director of Hamas, said today that reconciliation talks with the rival Palestinian faction Fatah are progressing and will resume in Egypt on 9 February.

Speaking in Amman after talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II, Meshaal said, "We've made good steps in our previous reconciliation talks and we have a timetable to follow."

The Hamas leader added that "obstacles" remain over crucial issues such as elections and a future government, "but we will overcome them with our will and determination to end the state of estrangement and division".

Meanwhile, a bystander in Cairo has been shot dead as clashes between security forces and protesters occurred for a fifth day.

The 46-year-old man was hit by a gunshot early Monday on the edge of Tahrir Square. It was not clear who fired the shot.

1014 GMT:Mali. A report from Channel 4's Lindsey Hilsum, the first British journalist to enter Gao after Islamist insurgents withdrew in the face of an offensive by French and Malian Government forces:

French and Malian forces also moved into Timbuktu over the weekend, leaving only one major town in northern Mali in the hands of the insurgents.

0814 GMT:Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party has accused the opposition National Salvation Front of involvement in recent violence. The FJP's Ahmed Diab said:

The NSF just wants to give political cover to justify its involvement in ongoing violent crimes their members are committing, including attempted murder, arson, burglary, sabotage and vandalism, on the 2nd anniversary of the January 25 Revolution. But they cannot so fast wash their hands of the blood of Egyptians they shed in one way or another.

On Sunday, the National Salvation Front called for political concessions by the Morsi Government to avoid further conflict, but Diab maintained, "Demands...like threatening to reject the Constitution and stipulating early presidential elections, are illegitimate, illogical, do not conform to political practice norms and are not based on any democratic standards or principles."

Diab also criticised the refusal of the Front to accept President Morsi's invitation to a "national dialogue". He then accused the opposition of alliance with a "vigilante" group that emerged last weekend: "How will the NSF impose its political views in the coming phase of its history, with the help of the so-called Black Bloc militias?!"

0811 GMT:Libya. Ninety-four Emiratis, accused of compromising the security of the State, have been referred to the Federal Supreme Court for trial.

Most of the 94 accused are members of Al Islah, an organisation linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. They have been detained since last summer.

Attorney General Salim Saeed Kubaish said, "They launched, established and ran an organisation seeking to oppose the basic principles of the UAE system of governance and to seize power. The organisation...announced its declared principles as being the teaching and virtues of Islam, but their undeclared aims were, in fact, to seek to seize power and the state's system of governance and to oppose the basic principles of this system."

The Attorney General said the defendants had communicated with foreign individuals and organisations abroad to distort the image of the UAE: "They also provided these individuals, entities and establishments with inaccurate information in order to create international public opinion that would put pressure on the Government and the leadership of the state, so as to weaken its status in terms of its foreign relations."

0755 GMT:Libya. Sheikh Mohamed bin Othman, a Muslim Brotherhood member and local government official, has been shot dead as he left a mosque after Saturday prayers in Misurata.

There have been dozens of assassiations of officials, many of them from the security forces, in the last year.

0655 GMT:Bahrain. Authorities have declared that 8-year-old Qassim Habib, whose funeral was attended by thousands of mourners on Sunday, did not die of tear gas inhalation.

Activists and the opposition society Al Wefaq said Habib suffered from the effects of an attack by security forces on 19 January, but Special Investigations Unit Head Nawaf Abdullah Hamaz declared that an investigation found the boy had severe pneumonia and that doctors concluded "there was no criminal cause of death".

Morsi announced the measure in a televised address last night, following emergency meetings over violence which included the deaths of at least 10 people in Suez on Friday and 33 people --- 31 civilians and two police officers --- in Port Said on Saturday.

Another five men were slain in Port Said yesterday when security forces fired on funeral processions. More than 430 people were injured, most of them by tear gas but 17 by live ammunition and birdshot.

"I have said I am against any emergency measures but I have said that if I must stop bloodshed and protect the people then I will act," Morsi said.

The President also called for dialogue with top politicians, starting on Monday.

Friday's clashes came amid protests on the second anniversary of the uprising against the Mubarak regime, while Saturday's deadly events were sparked by a court's declaration of 21 death sentences on Port Said football fans over last year's killing of 74 supporters from Cairo during a match.

Al Jazeera English's Rawya Rageh said immediate reaction in Port Said was one of mockery and scepticism: "The people [in Port Said] feel that there was a complete state of collapse especially after riots today, particularly with tear gas being fired into the funerals."

The spokesman for the opposition National Security Council was dismissive of Morsi's call for dialogue: "We feel the president is missing the real problem on the ground which is his own policies. His call to implement emergency law was an expected move given what is going on, namely thuggery and criminal actions."

Leading politicians in the front, such as Hamdeen Sabahi and Mohamed ElBaradei, said the invitation to dialogue was "a waste of time".

References (1)

It was a very good campaign that we produced in that Valley of Holiness, and I was incredibly well satisfied, and ready to move on now, but I struck a disappointment. I caught a heavy cold, and it started up an old lurking rheumatism of mine. Obviously the rheumatism hunted up ...

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